met a white
haired colored man, Benjamin Seals, who as a boy had been a slave.
The records of the case found by Mr. Lockley in the Polk County court house and transcribed by him are as follows:
Territory of Oregon, )
) ss. Polk County, )
The United States of America To Nathaniel Ford, Greeting
You are hereby commanded that you have the bodies of Jenny or Mary Jane Holmes, Roxanna Holmes and James Holmes, by you unlawfully detained, as it is said, by whatsoever name they may be respectively known and called, before the District Court of said County, on the first day of the next term, together with the cause of their, and each of their, caption and detention, to receive what shall then there, by the said Court, be considered in that behalf. And this you shall in nowise emit under the penalty of the law.
Witness John E. Lyle, Clerk of said Court, at the Court house in said County, the 16th day of April A. D. 1 852, By order of the Court. Territory of Oregon ss:
Allowed in open Court this 16th day of April A. D. 1852 on an agreement of facts between the father claiming the above named persons as children and Nathaniel Ford who admits that he detained them at the date of this allowance.
0. C. PRATT,
Atty.
Served this writ by permitting Nathaniel Ford to read it and Driving him a CODV of the within this the 17th day of April A. D. 1852.
W. S. GILLIAM, Sheriff.
Sheriff's fees S2.00
[ENDORSED]
Ex Parte Jenny Holmes and Others A Writ of Habeas Corpus allowed the 16th day of
